70 The defmitive book on ffiQUI\ta}n Jivipg, '.,< ... . .. í n , <.. l . <, - ':'{::'; .,:= :=t, , .. ere famillës ènjoy the ìtatural splendor of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Outstand.. , ' , ,': ';: ing golf andmountam prop- erties offer fIrSt class ameni- : ties as part of this umque four season community. FREE! Call today, 1-800-325-2200 . ' . ' '. -:.. 1I:f.- ". r84i> f1 Call Olsen intergreen Developm nt, EO. Box 638} Wintergreen VA 22958. . Name Address City Zip NYR 22 State Phone .: . Wintergreen For vacations, for the farmly,for a home. Obtam tbe.Property Ireport lredby federaHaw and md It beforeSlgninganything No kderal agency hasjud,ged the ment&orYalue, ìfa.ny, Df.thjg property VoId wnereprolubìted by law Beeotfermgplan fòr full rerms ew York H,O.A regmtratIon number If9OOOO4 Ch. rlol ™ ri The adjustable height, folding, anywhere chair f Den Swd10 Kitchen Workshq:> r' Outdoor Events Our commitment to quality and design has created a product of exceptional form, function, and .__ durability. ,. '""$>' ,. Each Clhaurõoftn.4 IS handmade by American Craftsman using only the finest Nonhern Hard Maple Finish: Matte Black & Natural Order Toll Free: 1-800-522-6416 Fax: (501) 372-6564 $79 95 (plus shipping) Visa, MfC, & Am.Ex. .:,..- t: . Fdds to I" .' , i .<f< f l I ARcm! TIJRM I DURLEY HOUSE Magnificent All Suite Hotel in Sloane Street 1I5 LOANE STRfET LONDON SWIX 9P] TELEPHONf 071-235 5537 fAX 071-2596977 TELEX 919235 DURLEY G USA TOLL fREE 1-800 55 6674 but there were plenty of others, of every degree and distance, ready at hand And each tale, I noticed (getting out my notebook), began with a smile. "Any homer?" said Tracy Ringolsby, the Dallas Morning News national baseball writer "Bo Jackson's against Nolan, two years ago. I think it was during the Royals' first swing south, probably in May. Ryan had struck him out the first five or six times he'd faced him, and the first time Bo ever makes contact he hits the longest home run in Arlington Stadium history." We were standing in the bright sunlight in front of the Giants' dugout, before a game in Scottsdale, along with another writer friend, Vern Plagenhoef, of the Booth papers. "Mine is Kirk Gibson's in the last game of the '84 Series, against the Padres," Plagenhoef said when his turn came. "He'd al- ready had a great day, you remember, and when he comes up to bat against Goose Gossage, with two men on and first base open, you know they're going to put him on. But Gossage has a different idea. Dick Williams"-Wil- Iiams was the Padres skipper- "is waving four fingers, but Goose just stands there. Dick goes out to talk to him, and Sparky is yelling out to Kirk, 'They don't want to walk you!' He can't believe it-nobody can. But Goose wins the argument somehow, and Gibson hits the ball into the upper deck there at Tiger Stadium, and comes around and jumps up and down on home plate about six times in that wild, wild scene. Maybe it's not as big as Gibson's pinch-hit shot against Eckersley out at Dodger Stadium, but this is the one I think of first. It was the one lively thing in that whole Series, except for the cab catching fire outside the stadium." " D b . . "" oes atting practIce countr Ringolsby asked. "Just this once? O.K., then there's Pete Incaviglia's first at- bat of the year at Pompano, in '86. Pete's late getting to camp-he's a rookie, and most of us have never seen him-and on his first turn in the cage his manager, Bobby Valentine, is throw- ing B.P. First swing, Pete knocks the ball on a line down the right-field line and through the wooden fence out there. Not exactly a home run, but .it sure had that feel. The wall was rot- ten, it turned out, and al1 that spring the visiting players and writers kept MAY 27, 1991 stopping by and looking at the place, and picking more pieces out, for sou- venirs. By the end of the month, you could put your head through the hole. It had become a legend." By the way, Dan Shaughnessy, of the Boston Globe, believes that the Gibson homer against Dennis Eckersley would be universally ranked as the game's greatest if it had happened in the last game of a World Series instead of the first. "It also came on a Saturday night," he said to me. "The worst time in the world for deadlines, and every- body had to rewrite. I had a whole piece done about how the Dodgers were only the latest in a succession of National League fraud teams in the Series, and all that, but I hadn't pushed the button yet, so I was able to kill it. That home run came along after 'The Natural' had been playing around the country, you know, so the wounded Kirk Gibson gimping up to the plate was like Roy Hobbs come to life. It still feels like . I " a mirac e. Baseball memories leap over de- cades at a single bound, and long- flown afternoons return without effort, often in the heroic present tense. The flight feels easy if you're talking to Jim Kaat, who is an announcer for CBS these days but looks very much the way he did when he was the No. 1 starter for the Twins, a couple of decades ago-ochre-freckled, tall and intense, with farmer cheekbones and a high, thick chest. "I'm pitching against the Yankees, up at the Stadium," Kaat said to me in Port St. Lucie. "This is in 1967, the year we lost the pennant to the Red Sox on the very last day, but this game was way earlier. I've got the Yankees beat, 1-0, two out in the ninth, and Mantle's the hitter. The count goes to three and one. I thought about pitch- ing carefully and maybe putting him on, but Elston Howard was on deck, and he was always more dangerous for me than Mantle. Well, I challenged Mickey. You remember in the old Stadium it was still four hundred and fifty-seven feet to the auxiliary score- board in left field ? That's where he hit it. The game was tied now, and we got rained out in the tenth. We came back a month later, and, ironically, I was the pitcher in the makeup game, against Steve Barber, and I lost, 1-0. When you lose a pennant by one game, you